U.S. patent application number 09/938485 was filed with the patent office on 2002-06-13 for related documents processing device, recording medium for processing related documents and method for processing related documents.
This patent application is currently assigned to FUJITSU LIMITED. Invention is credited to Kariya, Chikako.
Application Number | 20020073112 09/938485 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 18843093 |
Filed Date | 2002-06-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020073112 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kariya, Chikako |
June 13, 2002 |
Related documents processing device, recording medium for
processing related documents and method for processing related
documents
Abstract
A related documents processing device includes a detector for
detecting relevance among documents and a locater for locating a
timewise latest document related to a document selected based on
detected relevance information.
Inventors: |
Kariya, Chikako; (Kawasaki,
JP) |
Correspondence
Address: |
STAAS & HALSEY LLP
700 11TH STREET, NW
SUITE 500
WASHINGTON
DC
20001
US
|
Assignee: |
FUJITSU LIMITED
Kawasaki
JP
|
Family ID: |
18843093 |
Appl. No.: |
09/938485 |
Filed: |
August 27, 2001 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
715/229 ;
707/999.006; 715/273 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/107
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
707/500 ;
707/6 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Dec 8, 2000 |
JP |
2000-373784 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A related documents processing device comprising: a detector
detecting relevance among documents; and a locater locating a
timewise latest document related to a document selected based on
detected relevance information.
2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the documents have
header information, and the detector detects the relevance among
the documents based on the header information.
3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the detector detects a
timewise order of the documents based on time information in the
header information of each of the documents and outputs the
relevance information including at least a timewise order.
4. The device according to claim 1, further comprising a display
unit for displaying contents of the document located by the
locator.
5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the display unit
displays the relevance among the documents as a tree view based on
the relevance information detected by the detector.
6. The device according to claim 5, wherein a specific document
selected among the documents displayed as a tree view by the
display unit is processed as the selected document at the
locator.
7. The device according to claim 2, wherein the detector detects a
branched state between documents based on an ID noted in the header
information according to a uniqueness rule in each of the documents
and outputs the relevance information including at least the
detected branched state.
8. The device according to claim 5, wherein the detector detects a
branched state between documents based on an ID noted in the header
information according to a uniqueness rule in each of the documents
and outputs the relevance information including at least the
detected branched state, and the display unit displays the
relevance among the documents including the detected branched state
as a tree view.
9. The device according to claim 1, wherein the documents are
electronic mail documents, and the relevance information detected
by the detector is an exchange history of the electronic mail
documents.
10. The device according to claim 9, wherein a timewise latest
electronic mail document located by the locator is subjected to a
return mail processing.
11. A related documents processing device characterized in that it
comprises: a detector detecting relevance among documents; and a
document editor parsing an overlapped portion among related
documents based on detected relevance information and for merging
the documents with the overlapped portion eliminated.
12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the document editor
merges the documents according to an order of the related
documents.
13. The device according to claim 11, wherein the documents have
header information, and the detector detects the relevance among
the documents based on the header information.
14. The device according to claim 13, wherein the detector detects
a timewise order of the documents based on time information in the
header information of each of the documents and outputs the
relevance information including at least the timewise order.
15. The device according to claim 11, further comprising a display
unit for displaying the relevance among the documents as a tree
view based on the relevance information detected by the
detector.
16. The device according to claim 15, wherein the document editor
merges documents from a document selected among the documents
displayed as a tree view by the display unit up to a timewise
latest document related to the selected document, and the display
unit displays the merged document.
17. The device according to claim 13, wherein the detector detects
a branched state between documents based on an ID noted in the
header information according to a uniqueness rule in each of the
documents and outputs the relevance information including at least
the detected branched state.
18. The device according to claim 15, wherein the detector detects
a branched state between documents based on an ID noted in the
header information according to a uniqueness rule in each of the
documents and outputs the relevance information including at least
the detected branched state, and the display unit displays the
relevance among the documents including the detected branched state
as a tree view.
19. The device according to claim 11, wherein the documents are
electronic mail documents, and the relevance information detected
by the detector is an exchange history of the electronic mail
documents.
20. A computer readable recording medium having a program recoded
thereon, the program makes a computer function as: a detector
detecting relevance among documents; and a locator locating a
timewise latest document related to a document selected based on
detected relevance information.
21. The recording medium according to claim 20, wherein the
documents have header information, and the detector detects the
relevance among the documents based on the header information.
22. The recording medium according to claim 21, wherein the
detector detects a timewise order of the documents based on time
information in the header information of each of the documents and
outputs the relevance information including at least the timewise
order.
23. The recording medium according to claim 20, wherein the program
further makes the computer function as a display unit for
displaying contents of the document located by the locator.
24. The recording medium according to claim 23, wherein the display
unit displays the relevance among the documents as a tree view
based on the relevance information detected by the detector.
25. The recording medium according to claim 24, wherein a specific
document selected among the documents displayed as a tree view by
the display unit is processed as the selected document at the
locator.
26. The recording medium according to claim 21, wherein the
detector detects a branched state between documents based on an ID
noted in the header information according to a uniqueness rule in
each of the documents and outputs the relevance information
including at least the detected branched state.
27. The recording medium according to claim 24, wherein the
detector detects a branched state between documents based on an ID
noted in the header information according to a uniqueness rule in
each of the documents and outputs the relevance information
including at least the detected branched state, and the display
unit displays the relevance among the documents including the
detected branched state as a tree view.
28. The recording medium according to claim 20, wherein the
documents are electronic mail documents, and the relevance
information detected by the detector is an exchange history of the
electronic mail documents.
29. The recording medium according to claim 28, wherein a timewise
latest electronic mail document located by the locator is subjected
to a return mail processing.
30. A computer readable recording medium having a program recoded
thereon, the program making a computer function as: a detector
detecting relevance among documents; and a document editor parsing
an overlapped portion among related documents based on detected
relevance information and merging the documents with the overlapped
portion eliminated.
31. The recording medium according to claim 30, wherein the
document editor merges the documents according to an order of the
related documents.
32. The recording medium according to claim 30, wherein the
documents have header information, and the detector detects the
relevance among the documents based on the header information.
33. The recording medium according to claim 32, wherein the
detector detects a timewise order of the documents based on time
information in the header information of each of the documents and
outputs the relevance information including at least a timewise
order.
34. The recording medium according to claim 30, wherein the program
further makes the computer function as a display unit for
displaying the relevance among the documents as a tree view based
on the relevance information detected by the detector.
35. The recording medium according to claim 34, wherein the
document editor merges documents from a document selected among the
documents displayed as a tree view by the display unit and up to a
timewise latest document related to the selected document, and the
display unit displays the merged document.
36. The recording medium according to claim 32, wherein the
detector detects a branched state between documents based on an ID
noted in the header information according to a uniqueness rule in
each of the documents and outputs the relevance information
including at least the detected branched state.
37. The recording medium according to claim 34, wherein the
detector detects a branched state between documents based on an ID
noted in the header information according to a uniqueness rule in
each of the documents and outputs the relevance information
including at least the detected branched state, and the display
unit displays the relevance among the documents including the
detected branched state as a tree view.
38. The device according to claim 30, wherein the documents are
electronic mail documents, and the relevance information detected
by the detector is an exchange history of the electronic mail
documents.
39. A method for processing related documents, which comprises: a
detecting step of detecting relevance among documents; and a
locating step of locating a timewise latest document related to a
document selected based on detected relevance information.
40. The method according to claim 39, wherein the documents have
header information, and the detecting step includes detecting the
relevance among the documents based on the header information.
41. The method according to claim 40, wherein the detecting step
includes detecting a timewise order of the documents based on time
information in the header information of each of the documents and
outputting the relevance information including at least a timewise
order.
42. The method according to claim 39, the locating step includes a
displaying step of displaying contents of the located document.
43. The method according to claim 43, wherein the displaying step
includes displaying the relevance among the documents as a tree
view based on the relevance information detected by the detecting
step.
44. The method according to claim 43, wherein the locating step
includes processing a specific document as the selected document,
the specific document selected among the documents displayed as a
tree view by the displaying step.
45. The method according to claim 40, wherein the detecting step
includes detecting a branched state between documents based on an
ID noted in the header information according to a uniqueness rule
in each of the documents and outputting the relevance information
including at least the detected branched state.
46. The method according to claim 43, wherein the detecting step
includes a branched state between documents based on an ID noted in
the header information according to a uniqueness rule in each of
the documents and outputting the relevance information including at
least the detected branched state, and the displaying step includes
displaying the relevance among the documents including the detected
branched state as a tree view.
47. The method according to claim 39, wherein the documents are
electronic mail documents, and the relevance information detected
by the detecting step is an exchange history of the electronic mail
documents.
48. The method according to claim 47, wherein a timewise latest
electronic mail document located by the locating step is subjected
to a return mail processing.
49. A method for processing related documents which comprises: a
detecting step of detecting relevance among documents; and a
merging step of parsing an overlapped portion among related
documents based on detected relevance information and merging the
documents with the overlapped portion eliminated.
50. The method according to claim 49, wherein the merging step
includes merging the documents according to an order of the related
documents.
51. The method according to claim 49, wherein the documents have
header information, and the detecting step includes detecting the
relevance among the documents based on the header information.
52. The method according to claim 51, wherein the detecting step
includes detecting a timewise order of the documents based on time
information in the header information of each of the documents and
outputting the relevance information including at least the
timewise order.
53. The method according to claim 49, wherein the detecting step
including displaying the relevance among the documents as a tree
view based on the detected relevance information.
54. The method according to claim 53, wherein the merging step
includes merging documents from a document selected among the
documents displayed as a tree view up to a timewise latest document
related to the selected document, and the displaying step includes
displaying the merged document.
55. The method according to claim 51, wherein the detecting step
includes detecting a branched state between documents based on an
ID noted in the header information according to a uniqueness rule
in each of the documents and outputting the relevance information
including at least the detected branched state.
56. The method according to claim 53, wherein the detecting step
includes detecting a branched state between documents based on an
ID noted in the header information according to a uniqueness rule
in each of the documents and outputting the relevance information
including at least the detected branched state, and the displaying
step includes displaying the relevance among the documents
including the detected branched state as a tree view.
57. The method according to claim 49, wherein the documents are
electronic mail documents, and the relevance information detected
by the detecting step is an exchange history of the electronic mail
documents.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C.
.sctn.119 to Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-373784, filed
Dec. 8, 2000, entitled "Related Documents Processing Device and
Recording Medium." The contents of that application are
incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to a related documents
processing device, a computer readable recording medium with a
related documents editing program recorded thereon, and a method
for processing related documents.
[0004] 2. Discussion of Background
[0005] Electric mail, which has been rapidly widespread for the
recent years, has been establishing an important place as a
business tool, and many persons exchange messages directly related
to business on many occasions by electronic mail. This is also
certainly applied to a case wherein persons privately exchange
messages by electronic mail as a communication tool.
[0006] FIG. 12 is a schematic view showing a flow of response in
ordinary electronic mail. First electronic mail 4 branches into two
pieces of response mail (4-1 and 4-2). The response mail 4-1
includes a response message wherein all the contents of the first
mail 4 are added (quoted) with a sign, such as "<", marked at
the head of each line for instance. The response mail 4-1-1
includes a response message wherein the contents of the response
mail 4-1 are not added (quoted). The other response mail 4-2
branched from the first mail 4 includes a response message wherein
the contents of the first mail 4 are not added (quoted).
[0007] When such response is repeated, it is not necessarily
possible to see the details in the previous messages by reading
only the latest electronic mail. This is because some electronic
mail messages are prepared so that the contents of a preceding
electronic mail message are not quoted and portions unnecessary to
the sender are related as in the example stated above. Accordingly,
it is necessary to skim through all deleted electronic mail
messages.
[0008] In that case, the flow of exchange and the contents of
electronic mail messages are grasped, catching the relevance of
messages in reliance on the common subject and the reference
indicative of response (e.g., Re:) since response messages have the
common subject put as the heading and the reference added.
[0009] However, to grasp the flow of exchange and the contents of
electronic mail messages, relying on the subject and the reference
to catch the relevance of electronic mail messages, becomes
difficult as the number of the electronic mail messages increases.
This is because the electronic mail messages includes branched
messages as stated earlier. From this viewpoint, it is not simple
to find out the electronic mail message to respond.
[0010] In this case, it is necessary to find out the target message
in reliance on not only the subject and the reference but also time
(included in, e.g., header information) and the contents of the
messages. Anyway, it is necessary to read through the electronic
mail messages one after another, which is significantly troublesome
to users.
[0011] The present invention is proposed in consideration of the
problems stated earlier. It is an object of the present invention
to provide a related documents processing device, and a method for
processing related documents capable of easily grasping the flow of
exchange (relevance) among documents having a certain relevance,
and eliminating a wasteful job for reading through all related
documents while investigating the sequence in relevance of the
related documents, thereby to establish an effective job. In
particular, the present invention can be applied to electronic mail
documents exchanged with respect to a specific subject to easily
find out an electronic mail document to respond, simply grasping
the contents and the flow of the exchanged mail documents, for
instance.
[0012] According to a first aspect of the present invention, the
related documents processing device according to the present
invention is characterized to comprise a detector for detecting
relevance among documents and a locater for locating a timewise
latest document related to a document selected based on detected
relevance information.
[0013] In the first aspect of the present invention, the detector
detects the relevance among the documents based on header
information or other information included in the documents. Based
on the detected relevance information, the locator locates the
timewise latest document related to the selected document. By
locating the timewise latest document related to the selected
document based on the selected document, it become possible to
easily grasp the contents of the consequence at the present time or
another matter (including final conclusion etc.) among the related
documents and to find out a mail document to respond without
trouble in the case of, for instance, electronic mail
documents.
[0014] Although, e.g., electronic mail documents are applicable to
the documents recited in the arrangement, the documents are not
limited to the electronic mail documents, and documents having a
certain file format, for instance, are also applicable.
[0015] The meaning of the expression "among documents" is not only
"among a plurality of independent documents" but also "among the
contents of a plurality of documents stored in a file and managed
as independent information". In the case of pieces of electronic
mail software as in the embodiments stated later, some of them
manage respective mail documents as independent files, and some of
them store all mail documents (an incoming mail document, an
outgoing mail document, a drafted mail document etc.) in a single
file and make a presentation as the incoming mail document, the
outgoing mail document and the drafted mail document, using the
attributes (incoming, outgoing, drafted etc.) of the mail
documents. It is needless to say that the expression "among
documents" covers "among such mail documents".
[0016] The header information may be time information or IDs noted
in the respective documents according to a uniqueness rule. The
meaning of the uniqueness rule is that respective pieces of
information have different IDs. When the time information is
included in the header information, the detector detects a timewise
order of the documents based on the time information. When the ID
of a certain document and the IDs of the documents related to the
certain document are included in the header information, the
detector can detect the relationship among the documents (including
relevance, such as the branched state between the documents). Based
on the header information, the detector sorts out the relationship
among the documents and outputs the result of the sort as relevance
information to the locator. The locator locates the timewise latest
document related to the selected document according to a certain
rule (a timewise order or relevance based on IDs parallel
noted).
[0017] When the header information of each of the documents
includes the time information, the detector can detect a timewise
order of the documents based on the time information of each of the
documents and outputs relevance information including at least the
timewise order. In particular, when the header information includes
time information on preparation or modification of documents to be
dealt with, the detector can detect a timewise order of the
documents based on the time information in the header information
of each of the documents and outputs relevance information
including at least the timewise order.
[0018] The related documents processing device may further comprise
a display unit to display the contents of a document located by the
locator if there is such a document.
[0019] The display unit may have a function to display the
relevance among the documents as a tree view based on the relevance
information detected by the detector. In this case, a specific
document selected among the documents displayed as a tree view by
the display unit is processed as the selected document at the
locator.
[0020] When the detector detects the branched state between the
documents based on the ID noted in the header information according
the uniqueness rule in each of the documents and outputs relevance
information including at least the detected branched state, the
display unit can also display the relevance among the documents
including the detected branched state as a tree view.
[0021] When the documents are electronic mail documents, there can
be a case wherein the relevance information detected by the
detector is an exchange history of the electronic mail documents.
In this case, the timewise latest electronic mail document located
by the locator is subjected to a return mail processing.
[0022] The detector may detect a timewise order of the documents
based on time information in the header information of each of the
documents and outputs relevance information including at least the
timewise order, and the display unit may display the timewise
latest document among the documents related to a specific document
that is selected among the documents displayed as a tree view (is
selected by clicking a pointing device and the like). By adopting
such arrangement, it becomes possible not only to visually display
the relevance among the documents but also to easily grasp the
contents of the consequence at the present time or another matter
(including final conclusion etc.) among the related documents. In
the case of electronic mail documents, for instance, it becomes
possible to find out a mail document to respond without
trouble.
[0023] As stated earlier, the header information may include an ID
or the like noted in each of the documents according to the
uniqueness rule or time information on preparation or modification
of documents to be dealt with. In this case, the detector detects
the branched state between the documents based on the ID noted in
the header information according the uniqueness rule in each of the
documents, detects a timewise order of the documents based on the
time information in the header information of each of the
documents, and outputs relevance information including at least the
detected branched state and the timewise order. When the display
unit displays the relevance among the documents including the
detected branched state as a tree view, and when a specific
document is selected among the documents displayed as the tree
view, the contents of the timewise latest document among the
documents related to the selected document is displayed.
[0024] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the
related documents processing device according to the present
invention is characterized to comprise a detector for detecting
relevance among documents and a document editor for parsing an
overlapped portion among related documents based on detected
relevance information and for merging the related documents with
the overlapped portion eliminated.
[0025] In the second aspect, the related documents can be edited
into a single document so that the overlapped portion is eliminated
according to a certain rule and that all the contents of the
related documents can be read at a glance.
[0026] When the document editor carries out the editing operation
in a way to merge the related documents according to an order of
the related documents, it becomes easy to read the related
documents.
[0027] As the manner for the document editor to make the document
editing operation, there is proposed that the document editor not
only determine an order of the related documents based on the
relevance information detected by the relevance detector but also
parse an overlapped portion in the related mail documents, and that
if a later document contains a part or the entire part of the
contents of an earlier document, the document editor merge the
documents with the overlapped portion eliminated from the later or
the earlier document.
[0028] The merged document thus provided by the editing is a
document having a series of successive fashion and having no
overlapped portion. As a result, it becomes possible to effectively
grasp the contents of the documents and see a series of flow of the
documents without reviewing all the documents. When the documents
are, for example, electronic mail documents, it becomes possible to
effectively grasp the contents and the flow of all exchanged mail
documents without reading through all response mail documents.
Thus, it becomes possible to eliminate a wasteful job for reading
through all related response mail documents, making the operation
effective.
[0029] It is needless to say that if each of the documents includes
header information, the detector can detect the relevance among the
documents based on the header information. In this case, the header
information may include time information or an ID noted in each of
the documents according to the uniqueness rule. When the time
information is included in the header information, the detector can
detect a timewise order of the documents based on the time
information. When the ID of a certain document and the IDs of the
documents related to the certain document are included in the
header information, the detector can detect the relationship among
the documents (including relevance, such as the branched state
between the documents). Thus, the detector can sort out the
relationship among the documents based on the header information
and outputs the results of the sort as relevance information to the
document editor. The document editor parses an overlapped portion
between the documents based on the relevance information and merges
the documents with the overlapped portion eliminated.
[0030] When the header information of each of the documents
includes the time information, the detector can detect a timewise
order of the documents based on the time information of each of the
documents and outputs relevance information including at least the
timewise order. In particular, when the header information includes
time information on preparation or modification of documents to be
dealt with, the detector can detect the timewise order of the
documents based on the time information in the header information
of each of the documents and outputs relevance information
including at least the timewise order.
[0031] The arrangement according to this aspect may include a
display unit, which displays the relevance among the documents as a
tree view based on the relevance information detected by the
detector.
[0032] When such a display unit is included, the document editor
may merge documents from a document selected among the documents
displayed as a tree view by the display unit up to the timewise
latest document related to the selected document, and the display
unit may have a function to display the merged document.
[0033] The detector may detect a branched state between documents
based on an ID noted in the header information according the
uniqueness rule in each of the documents as stated earlier and
output relevance information including at least the detected
branched state, and the document editor may parse an overlapped
portion between the documents based on the relevance information
and merge the documents with the overlapped portion eliminated.
[0034] When the detector detects the branched state between the
documents based on the ID noted in the header information according
the uniqueness rule in each of the documents and outputs relevance
information including at least the detected branched state as
stated earlier, the display unit may display the relevance among
the documents including the detected branched state as a tree
view.
[0035] When the documents are electronic mail documents, there can
be a case wherein the relevance information detected by the
detector is an exchange history of the electronic mail documents.
In this case, it is easy to eliminate the overlapped portion by the
document editor since the relevance among the documents can be
clarified based on the exchange history.
[0036] According to a third aspect and a fourth aspect of the
present invention, there are provide recording media with a program
executable in a computer stored therein for having a computer
executed the constituent elements in each of the first and the
second aspect. Specifically, as the solution to solve the problems,
there are provided recording media with a program readable by and
executable in a computer stored therein, which can use the
structure of a computer to realize the respective constituent
elements. In this case, the computer may be a general purpose
computer including a central processing unit or a dedicated purpose
computer for a specific processing. There is no particular
limitation as long as the computer includes a central processing
unit.
[0037] When a program for having a computer served to realize the
respective constituent elements is read out by a computer,
structures similar to the constituent elements recited in the first
aspect or the second aspect can be provided.
[0038] Such recording media can be easily distributed or sold as
software products. By executing such software in an existing
hardware resource, it becomes possible to easily execute the system
of the present invention as a new application in the existing
hardware. It is needless to say that an internal storage, such as a
RAM and a ROM, and an external storage, such as a hard disk in
addition to these recording media are included in the recording
media covered by the present invention as long as the program
stated earlier is recorded in these storages.
[0039] One of the constituent elements recited in the third aspect
or the fourth aspect may be realized by a function incorporated
into a computer (a function incorporated as a part of a hardware in
a computer, or a function realized by the operating system
incorporated in a computer, another application program or the
like), and the program stored in the recording medium in the third
aspect or the fourth aspect may include a command to call or link
to the function to be provided by the computer.
[0040] This is because substantially similar arrangement can be
provided as long as one of the constituent elements recited in the
first aspect or the second aspect is taken over by a part of the
functions attained by, e.g., the operating system and as long as
the part of the functions of the operating system for attaining the
functions can be configured to be called or linked, though neither
program nor module for realizing that function is directly recorded
on a recording media.
[0041] The third aspect corresponds to the first aspect and
provides a computer readable recording medium having a program
recoded thereon, the program making a computer function as a
detector for detecting relevance among documents and a locator for
locating a timewise latest document related to a document selected
based on detected relevance information.
[0042] The fourth aspect corresponds to the second aspect and
provides a computer readable recording medium having a program
recoded thereon, the program making a computer function as a
detector for detecting relevance among documents and a document
editor for parsing an overlapped portion among related documents
based on detected relevance information and for merging the
documents with the overlapped portion eliminated.
[0043] According to a fifth aspect and a sixth aspect of the
present invention, there are provided methods for processing
related documents which respectively, correspond to the first
aspect and the second aspect.
[0044] Specifically, according to the fifth aspect, there is
provided a method for processing related documents, which comprises
a detecting step of relevance among documents; and a locating step
of locating a timewise latest document related to a document
selected based on detected relevance information.
[0045] According to the sixth aspect, there is provided a method
for processing related documents which comprises a detecting step
of detecting relevance among documents; and a merging step of
parsing an overlapped portion among related documents based on
detected relevance information and merging the documents with the
overlapped portion eliminated.
[0046] As explained, the related documents processing device, the
recording medium and the method for processing related documents
according to the present invention can offer advantages that it
becomes possible to easily grasp the relevance among documents
having a certain relevance and to eliminate a wasteful job, such as
a job for reading through all related documents while investigating
the sequence in relevance of the related documents, thereby to
establish an effective job.
[0047] In particular, the present invention can be applied to
electronic mail documents exchanged with respect to a specific
subject to easily find out an electronic mail document to respond,
simply grasping the contents and the flow of the exchanged mail
documents without reading through the respective exchanged
electronic mail documents one after another.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0048] A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of
the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the
same becomes better understood by reference to the following
detailed description when considered in connection with the
accompanied drawings, wherein:
[0049] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the outline of a related
documents processing device wherein the related documents
processing device for electronic mail according to the present
invention is constructed in a computer;
[0050] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the related
documents processing device of FIG. 1;
[0051] FIG. 3 is a view showing the relationship among a group of
response mail documents as an example;
[0052] FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing, as an example, how to
indicate Message-IDs and References included in the header
information of the respective mail documents of FIG. 3;
[0053] FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing a case wherein
the related documents processing device for electronic mail
according to a second embodiment of the present invention is
constructed in a computer;
[0054] FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing how the files of a group
of related mail documents on a mailer application are displayed on
a display device;
[0055] FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram showing a case wherein
the related documents processing device for electronic mail
according to a third embodiment of the present invention is
constructed in a computer;
[0056] FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing, as an example, how to
edit a grouped series of related mail documents by document editor
based on a result of relevance detection conducted by a relevance
detector;
[0057] FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing steps in the editing process
shown in FIG. 8;
[0058] FIG. 10 is a schematic view showing how to edit a grouped
series of related mail documents by a document editor, the related
mail documents including branched mail documents;
[0059] FIG. 11 is a schematic view showing the relationship between
the contents of respective exchanged mail documents and a merged
message with the contents merged therein; and
[0060] FIG. 12 is a schematic view showing the ordinary flow in
response of electronic mail documents.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0061] The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now
be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein
like reference numerals designate corresponding or identical
elements throughout the various drawings.
[0062] Embodiment 1
[0063] FIGS. 1 and 2 are a schematic view of a related documents
processing device and a functional block diagram wherein the
related documents processing device for electronic mail according
to the present invention is constructed in a computer 100 when a
certain mailer application program and the related documents
editing program according to the present invention written on a
CD-ROM 200 are read out by the computer and executed in the
computer.
[0064] As shown in FIG. 1, the computer 100 is, as usual,
configured to include a system bus 111, a CPU 101 connected
thereto, RAM 102 connected thereto, a ROM 103 connected thereto, a
floppy disk drive 104 connected thereto, a hard disk drive 105
connected thereto, a CD-ROM drive 106 connected thereto, a keyboard
107 and a mouse 108 connected thereto through an input unit
interface 107a, a display device 109, such as a display, connected
thereto through an image processing unit 109a, and an output device
110, such as a printer, connected thereto through an output unit
interface 110a. When the CD-ROM 200 with a certain electronic mail
application program (hereinbelow referred to as the mailer
application) and the related documents editing program according to
the present invention written thereon is put into the CD-ROM drive
106, and when these programs are read out and executed in the
computer 100, the related documents processing device according to
the present invention is constructed on the mailer application.
[0065] Although explanation of this embodiment is made with
reference to a case wherein a certain program is provided by the
CD-ROM 200, the provision of the program is not limited to this
fashion. The program may be provided by another recording medium or
may be downloaded from another device through a network and be
stored in the computer 100.
[0066] The related documents processing device on the mailer
application is configured to include a document storage 10a, a
relevance detector 20a and a sorter 30a as shown in FIG. 2.
[0067] Among these elements, the document storage 10a also serves
as a file memory structure (not shown) for incoming electronic
mail, outgoing electronic mail, electronic mail in a transmission
standby status (or drafted electronic mail) and others in the
mailer application and comprises an internal storage, such as the
RAM 102, and an external storage, such as the hard disk drive 105.
The respective pieces of electronic mail include at least time
information, such as the receiving time of the incoming mail
documents, and the preparing time or the transmitting time of the
outgoing mail, status information for discriminating whether each
of the mail documents is an incoming one, an outgoing one or one in
a transmission standby status, and Message-ID information as header
information.
[0068] The Message-IDs are noted in the respective mail documents
according to the uniqueness rule, in the form, e.g., "11111",
"22222", "33333" and "44444", as shown in FIG. 4, which will be
described later. Each header information includes "References"
showing to which electronic mail the corresponding mail is response
mail (related), in addition to the corresponding Message-ID.
[0069] The relevance detector 20a includes a detector for detecting
the relevance among documents based on the header information of
the documents and a locator for locating the final document in a
timewise sense among documents selected based on detected relevance
information. The relevance detector comprises the CPU 101 and the
RAM 102 for providing the CPU with a working area. In the detection
processing of the relevance among the documents, the branched state
among the mail documents is detected based on the Message-IDs and
the References noted in the header information of the respective
mail documents, and the timewise order is also detected based on
the time information in the header information. After having
completed the detection processing, the relevance detector 20a
outputs the results of the processing as relevance information.
[0070] The sorter 30a is configured to rearrange or sort out the
mail documents based on the detected relevance information. The
sorter also comprises the CPU 101 and the RAM 102 for providing the
CPU with a working area. The sorting process carried out in the
sorter is processing for sorting out the mail documents based on
the detected branched status and the detected timewise order. The
result of the sorting is added to the header information in the
respective mail documents as certain symbols for order (e.g.,
natural numbers) indicative of the sorted order and is stored in
the document storage 10a.
[0071] FIGS. 3 and 4 are a view showing the relationship among
response mail documents and a schematic view showing, as an
example, how to indicate the Message-IDs and the References
included in the header information of the respective mail
documents. In these figures, a mail document {circle over (1)} is a
first mail document, wherein "11111" is noted in the "Message-ID",
and no Message-ID information on related mail documents is not
noted in the "References". A mail document {circle over (2)} is a
response mail document to the first mail document {circle over (1)}
s shown in FIG. 3, wherein "22222" is noted in the "Message-ID",
and "11111" as the Message-ID information of the first mail
document {circle over (1)} as a related mail document is noted in
the "References". A mail document {circle over (3)} is a response
mail document to the second mail document {circle over (2)} as
shown in FIG. 3, wherein "33333" is noted in the "Message-ID", and
"22222" as the Message-ID information of the second mail {circle
over (2)} as a related mail document is noted in the "References".
A mail document {circle over (4)} branches from the mail document
{circle over (2)} and is a response mail document to the first mail
document {circle over (1)} as shown in FIG. 3, wherein "44444" is
noted in the "Message-ID", and "11111" as the Message-ID
information of the first mail {circle over (1)} as a related mail
document is noted in the "References".
[0072] The relevance detector 20a detects the relevance among the
mail documents and the branched state of the mail documents,
detects the timewise order among the respective mail documents and
outputs the detected relevance and the detected timewise order to
the sorter 30a as relevance information as explained. By the
sorting processing in the sorter 30a, a group of relative mail
documents can be timewise sorted in the order of their closer
relevance while reflecting a branched state if any.
[0073] As explained, the results of the sorting are added as
certain symbols for order to the header information. When a user
uses the mailer application to look into the files of the mail
documents, the files of the mail documents are displayed in fashion
sorted according to the order. If necessary, the user can click a
certain mail document to display the contents of the mail document
on the screen of the display device 109.
[0074] Embodiment 2
[0075] FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing a case wherein
the related documents processing device for electronic mail
according to the present invention is constructed in a computer 100
when a certain mailer application program and the related documents
editing program according to the present invention written on a
CD-ROM 200 are read out by the computer 100 and executed on the
computer.
[0076] The hardware structure of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is
identical to the one shown in FIG. 1, and detailed explanation of
the hardware structure will be omitted.
[0077] The related documents processing device on the mailer
application is configured to include a document storage 10b, a
relevance detector 20b and a display unit 40b as shown in FIG.
5.
[0078] Since the document storage 10b and the relevance detector
20b among these elements are identical to the document storage 10a
and the relevance detector 20a stated earlier, detailed explanation
of the document storage and the relevance detector will be
omitted.
[0079] The display unit 40b is configured to display the relevance
among the documents as a tree view based on detected relevance
information. The display unit comprises the CPU 101, the RAM 102
and the display device 109. The CPU 101 provides the RAM 102 with
image information with the relevance reflected therein, and the
image information is displayed on the screen of the display device
109.
[0080] FIG. 6 shows how the files of a group of related mail
documents on the mailer application are displayed on the display
device 109 by the arrangement stated above. In this figure, it is
shown that a mail document {circle over (1)} is a first mail
document, that the response mail to the first mail document
branches into two mail documents {circle over (2)} and {circle over
(3)}, that a response mail document {circle over (4)} to the mail
document {circle over (2)}, a response mail document {circle over
(5)} to the response mail document {circle over (4)} and a response
mail document {circle over (6)} to the response mail document
{circle over (5)} are related mail documents, and that a response
mail document {circle over (7)} to the mail document {circle over
(3)} is a related mail document.
[0081] In addition, the display unit 40b serves so that, when a
user clicks, e.g., the mail document {circle over (2)} among the
electronic mail documents displayed on the display device, the
display unit specifies the latest mail document in a timewise sense
among mail documents related to the clicked mail document based on
relevance information outputted from the relevance detector 20b,
and the display unit displays the contents of the latest mail
document as the mail document {circle over (6)} to respond. If the
user clicks the mail document {circle over (3)}, the display unit
40b displays the contents of the mail document {circle over (7)} to
respond. The function setting of the display unit 40b may be
modified to display the contents of the clicked mail document
{circle over (2)} as it is.
[0082] By the arrangement stated above, the relevance detector 20b
detects the relevance among the mail documents and the branched
state of the mail documents, detects the timewise order among the
respective mail documents and outputs the detected relevance and
the detected timewise order to the display unit 40b as relevance
information as explained. The display unit 40b can display a group
of relative mail documents as file icons indexing the respective
mail documents so that the relative mail documents are timewise
sorted in the order of their closer relevance while reflecting a
branched state if any. The display unit can display the
relationship among the respective file icons as a tree view using
charts so that the relevance among the file icons including the
branched state of the file icons is shown.
[0083] When a user clicks a certain mail document as explained, the
display unit 40b can receive the relevance information detected by
the relevance detector 20b to specify the latest mail document
among the mail documents related to the clicked mail document,
displaying the contents of the latest mail document as the mail
document to respond.
[0084] Embodiment 3
[0085] FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram showing a case wherein
the related documents processing device for electronic mail
according to the present invention is constructed in a computer 100
when a certain mailer application program and the related documents
editing program according to the present invention written on a
CD-ROM 200 are read out by the computer 100 and executed on the
computer.
[0086] The hardware structure of the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 is
identical to the one shown in FIG. 1, and detailed explanation of
the hardware structure will be omitted.
[0087] The related documents processing device on the mailer
application is configured to include a document storage 10c, a
relevance detector 20c and a document editor 50c as shown in FIG.
7.
[0088] Since the document storage 10c and the relevance detector
20c among these elements are identical to the ones in the first
embodiment, detailed explanation of the document storage and the
relevance detector will be omitted.
[0089] The document editor 50c provides arrangement that merges
related mail documents to modify the merged documents into a single
mail document for a user to easily read the related mail documents
(to grasp the contents and the flow of exchange of the related mail
documents). The document editor 50c comprises the CPU 101, the RAM
102 for providing the CPU with a working area, and another element.
The document editor 50c has a document editing function that the
document editor determines an order (a timewise order including a
branched state) of the related mail documents based on the
relevance information detected by the relevance detector 20c, and
that when a later mail document contains a part or the entire part
of the contents of an earlier mail document, the document editor
parses an overlapped portion in the related mail documents and not
only eliminates the overlapped portion from the later (or the
earlier) mail document but also merges the mail documents.
[0090] Although the display unit 40c is almost similar to the
display unit 40b in terms of structure, the display unit 40c has a
characteristics function in that when a user clicks a specific mail
document among the mail documents displayed as a tree view, the
display unit displays the merged document so as to cover the mail
documents up to the latest mail document related to the clicked
mail document. Specifically, the display unit 40c passes the mail
documents related to the clicked mail document from the clicked
mail document up to the latest mail document related thereto to the
document editor 50c. When the document editor edits the passed mail
documents into a merged document and return the merged document to
the display unit 40c, the display unit displays the merged document
on the screen of the display device 109.
[0091] FIG. 8 shows, as an example, how to edit a grouped series of
related mail documents by the document editor 50c based on the
results of relevance detection conducted by the relevance detector
20c. In this figure, first incoming mail 1 has the contents of the
mail document indicated by TOP. The response mail 1-1 to the first
incoming mail includes a responded passage indicated by Part: A1
and the contents TOP (normally having the head noted with a symbol
for meaning quotation, such as ">",) of the first incoming mail
1. The response mail 1-1-1 to the response mail 1-1 includes a
responded passage to the response mail 1-1 indicated by Part: A2
and the contents Part: A1 of the response mail 1-1. The response
mail 11-2 to the response mail 1-1 includes only a responded
passage to the response mail 1-1 indicated by Part: A3.
[0092] The relevance among the related documents has already been
detected by the relevance detector 20c at this stage. The document
editor 50c, which has received the relevance information, performs
the function stated earlier to edit the related mail documents and
produce the merged document. Specifically, the document editor
carries out merging to extract unoverlapped portion from the mail
document clicked and selected by a user and from the mail documents
related to the selected mail document after the selected mail
document in a timewise descending order. In detail, when the
comparison of a mail document and the one just before that mail
document or already merged data shows that the mail document in
question includes the same contents as the one just before the mail
document in question in succession (the position of the same
contents varies on users and is located at the tail or the front in
the mail document in question), the mail document in question is
regarded as including an overlapped portion, the overlapped portion
is eliminated from the mail document in question, and the remaining
portion (a newly added message in the mail document in question) is
merged into the one just before the mail document in question or
the merged data. When this operation has been carried out
throughout the entire mail documents related to the selected mail
document, the merging is completed.
[0093] In the case stated earlier, the portion indicated by TOP,
the portion indicated by Part: A1 with the portion indicated by TOP
eliminated, the portion indicated by Part: A2 with the portion
indicated by Part: A1, and the portion indicated by Part: A3 are
respectively extracted from the first incoming mail 1, the response
mail 1-1, the response mail 1-1-1 and the response mail 1-1-2, and
the extracted portions are edited as a single merged document 2,
being timewise rearranged or sorted out.
[0094] FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the steps in the editing
process stated earlier. First, the relevance detector 20c retrieves
all related mail documents from the header information of the mail
documents stored in the document storage 10c (Step S101).
[0095] Next, the oldest mail document M1 is detected among the
related mail documents (Step S102). Then, the second oldest mail
document M2 is detected (Step S103).
[0096] An overlapped portion between the mail document Ml and the
mail document M2 is detected, and a merged data MA is prepared in
such a manner to eliminate the overlapped portion from the mail
document M2 (or the mail document M1) (Step S104).
[0097] The next oldest mail document Mn is detected (Step S105). An
overlapped portion between the merged data MA and the mail document
Mn is detected, and the merged data MA is prepared (renewed) in
such a manner to eliminate the overlapped portion from the mail
document Mn (Step S106).
[0098] It is checked whether the mail document Mn is the latest
mail document or not (Step S107). If it is not the latest mail
document (Step S107: No), the procedure returns to Step S105, and
the operations stated above are repeated.
[0099] If it is determined at the Step S107 that it is the latest
mail document (Step S107: Yes), the display device 40c displays the
merged data MA on the screen (Step S108).
[0100] FIG. 10 shows, as an example, how to edit a grouped series
of related mail documents with a branched mail document included
therein by the document editor 50c. In this figure, first incoming
mail 2 has the contents of the mail document indicated by TOP. The
response mail 2-1 to the first incoming mail includes a responded
passage indicated by Part: A1 and the contents TOP of the first
incoming mail 2. The response mail 2-1-1 to the response mail 2-1
includes a responded passage to the response mail 2-1 indicated by
Part: A2 and the contents Part: A1 of the response mail 2-1. The
response mail 2-2 directed to the first incoming mail 2 and
branched from the response mail 2-1 includes a responded passage to
the first incoming mail 2 indicated by Part: B1 and the contents of
the first incoming mail 2 indicated by TOP.
[0101] The response mail 2-2-1 to the response mail 2-2 includes
only a responded passage to the response mail 2-2 indicated by
Part: B2.
[0102] The relevance among the series of related documents with a
branched state included therein has already been detected by the
relevance detector 20c at this stage.
[0103] The document editor 50c, which has received the relevance
information, performs the function stated earlier to edit the
related mail documents and produce a merged document. In this case,
data to merge can not be integrated in single fashion by the
measures shown in FIG. 8 since the data to merge have branched
fashion. For this reason, merged data are prepared in the same
number as the number of branches. In other words, in this case, the
portion indicated by TOP, the portion indicated by Part: A1 with
the portion indicated by TOP eliminated, and the portion indicated
by Part: A2 with the portion indicated by Part: A1 eliminated are,
respectively, extracted from the first incoming mail 2, the
response mail 2-1 and the response mail 2-2-1, and the extracted
portions are edited as a single merged document A so as to be
timewise rearranged or sorted out. In addition, the portion
indicated by Part: B1 with the portion indicated by TOP eliminated
and the portion indicated by Part: B2 are, respectively extracted
from the response mail 2-2 and the response mail 2-2-1, and the
extracted portion are edited as a single merged document B so as to
be timewise rearranged or sorted out.
[0104] When the response mail documents have branched fashion, and
when the merged results exist in the number of branches, it is
preferable that not only the merged results for a selected mail
document but also the merged results for a branched mail document
can be listed on the display unit 40c so as to be browsed.
[0105] FIG. 11 is a schematic view showing the relationship between
the contents of respective exchanged mail documents and a merged
document (merged results). In this figure, the mail document of
first incoming mail 3 includes the subject of "Shiritori", the
transmitter's name of Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp and the mail contents of
"Apple".
[0106] The mail document of the response mail 3-1 to the first
incoming mail includes the same subject of "Shiritori", the
transmitter's name of Tanaka@fujitsu.co.jp, and the mail contents
of "Gorilla". In the response mail 3-1, below the mail contents of
"Gorilla", the quoted portion from the contents of the first
incoming mail 3 is shown as ">Apple", and below the mail
contents of "Apple", the indication of the transmitter's name of
the first incoming mail 3 and the mail contents are shown as
">From: Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp (new line) >Apple".
[0107] The mail document of the next response mail 3-2 includes the
same subject of "Shiritori", the transmitter's name of
Suzuki@fujitsu.co.jp, and the mail contents of "Trumpet". In the
response mail 3-2, below the mail contents of "Trumpet", the
indication of the transmitter's name of the response mail 3-1 and
the mail contents thereof are shown as ">From:
Tanaka@fujitsu.co.jp (new line) >Gorilla (new line)
>>Apple (new line) >>From: Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp (new
line) >>Apple".
[0108] The mail document of the next response mail 3-3 includes the
same subject of "Shiritori", the transmitter's name of
Yamamoto@fujitsu.co.jp, and the mail contents of "Pineapple". In
the response mail 3-3, "Pineapple (new line) >Trumpet (new line)
>>Gorilla (new line) >>>Apple" is shown in such
fashion to quote ">Apple" as the mail contents of the first
incoming mail 3, "Gorilla" as the mail contents of the response
mail 3-1 and "Trumpet" as the mail contents of the response mail
3-3.
[0109] The merged document M that are provided by editing these
mail documents at the document editor 50c has the contents of
"Yamamoto@fujitsu.co.jp>Pineapple (new line)
Suzuki@fujitsu.co.jp>T- rumpet (new line)
Tanaka@fujitsu.co.jp>Gorilla (new line)
Satoh@fujitsu.co.jp>Apple" as shown in this figure. The merged
document also includes the mail addresses of the writers in order
to see by whom the respective messages have been sent. Only the
character string before "@" in each of the mail addresses may be
shown to see by whom each of the messages has been sent.
[0110] As explained, the arrangement according to this embodiment
can provide a series of successive mail documents with an
overlapped portion eliminated and display the editorial results as
a single merged document. Thus, it becomes possible to effectively
grasp the contents of these mail documents and see the series flow
of the mail documents without reading through all mail documents.
By such display, it becomes possible to easily find out the
electronic mail to respond and to grasp the flow of the exchanged
mail documents at a glance.
[0111] The related documents processing device, the recording
medium and the method for processing related documents according to
the present invention are not limited to the embodiments stated
earlier. It is needless to say that variations and modifications
are possible without departing the spirit of the invention. For
example, the present invention may be applied to an outline
processor, which arranges or sort out the plot (outline) of an idea
to get the idea in shape, for the arrangement of written
documents.
* * * * *